A Different Take on "3 Screens"

A decade ago, the phrase "three screens" normally referred to movie theater screens, TVs and PCs, and was an attempt to capture the importance of the PC as a display device for entertainment video. 

That is not untrue, but these days the notion of three screens has other implications. Looking only at the way people consume Internet news, "three screens" now refers to the process whereby tablets, PCs and smart phones all are widely used access methods. 

Perhaps the biggest behavioral change is the shift to tablet-based consumption, which not tracks phone consumption quite closely. Sample data from the U.K. market for July 2012 suggests that tablets and phones are the most-used devices during "non-working" hours, while PC access is the most used method during workday periods.